Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says he’s “definitely worried” that download caps set by Canadian ISPs could be “a significant negative for Netflix.”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says he’s “definitely worried” that download caps set by Canadian ISPs could be “a significant negative for Netflix.”

In a conference call discussing the company’s most recent earnings report, Hastings said he believes many Canadian customers don’t know about the downloading limits on their Internet accounts and some are only figuring it out after getting charged overage fees.

“It’s something we’re definitely worried about, my sense is . . . many of them don’t understand their plan and it will take a billing cycle or two for them (to figure it out),” Hastings said.

“It is potentially a significant negative for Netflix.”

Watching content through Netflix can typically eat through between one or two gigabytes of data an hour, depending on the quality of the video stream.

Some lower-end high speed accounts offered by Canada’s large ISPs include only 25 gigabytes of downloading a month, the equivalent of about 12 hours of Netflix viewing in high definition. And that’s without accounting for any other data usage while web surfing, checking email, playing online games or other downloading.

Hastings also criticized the prices being charged to users that exceed their download caps.

In a letter to investors, he said it costs ISPs about a penny per gigabyte of data traffic — and that cost is decreasing. He said overage data charged at $1 per gigabyte is “grossly overpriced.” Meanwhile, Canada’s largest ISPs typically charge twice that amount and sometimes more.

“Hopefully we can work with the different consumer groups and providers and get a better costing structure,” Hastings said in the conference call, “more in the one-penny range or (plans) bundled in with a much higher cap.”

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